Yemen: Healthcare under siege in Taiz

A report on medical care in wartime has been published by MSF focusing on the impact of conflict on Yemen’s third-largest city, Taiz.

This report focuses on both the direct and deadly impact of the war on the civilian population of Taiz, and the collapse of health services in the divided city, as observed by MSF’s teams in Taiz.

Lack of respect for civilians

“The desperate situation in Taiz exemplifies what is happening in Yemen as a whole,” says Karline Kleijer, MSF’s emergency manager for Yemen.

"Our patients on both sides of the frontlines report being injured by shelling"

karline kleijerMSF emergecny manager, yemen

“The warring parties in Taiz regularly demonstrate a lack of respect for the protection of civilians, health facilities, healthcare workers and patients. Our patients on both sides of the frontlines report being injured by shelling while preparing lunch in their kitchens, wounded by airstrikes while walking to their fields, maimed by landmines while herding their livestock, and shot at by snipers in the streets outside their homes.”

Medical services targetted

Medical services in Taiz have been directly affected by violence, with hospitals repeatedly hit by shelling and gunfire, an MSF mobile clinic was hit by an airstrike, and ambulances shot at, confiscated or forcibly entered by armed men.

MSF

Samir al Asib lays on his stomach while being treated by a nurse in al Rawdah Hospital on July 24, 2015 in Taiz, Yemen.

Medical staff have been shot at on their way to work, harassed, detained, threatened and forced to work at gunpoint. Many health workers take great personal risks working in Taiz, and many fear for their lives while at work.

Hospital targetted and shelled many times

“Do I feel safe working in the hospital? I never feel safe” says an emergency room supervisor of a public hospital in Taiz. “There is no respect for health facilities. Our hospital has been targeted and shelled many times; the shelling is causing a lot of distress, both among staff and patients.”

Collapse of health service

A crippled health system, combined with increasingly harsh living conditions, has prompted a decline in people’s health, with particularly acute consequences for vulnerable groups with low immunity such as pregnant women, newborn babies and young children.

Basic needs not met

Most families now live with little or no electricity and insufficient food and water. Many have been forced to flee their homes to escape the fighting, and now live in makeshift settlements or crowded buildings, often without adequate sanitation and essentials such as mattresses, blankets or cooking equipment.

MSF

A Yemeni woman walks past garbage lining the streets in Taiz, Yemen. Taiz has been the site of heavy fighting, and nearly all civil services have stopped. July 2015.
There is no 48 in the pictures.

Free healthcare is extremely limited and private care can be prohibitively expensive, with people turning to it only as a last resort, when they are very sick and it may already be too late.

MSF treats women, children and war-wounded

In 2016, teams at MSF’s Mother and Child hospital and at the MSF-supported maternal departments in Taiz assisted more than 5,300 births, provided more than 31,900 antenatal consultations, conducted over 2,600 postnatal consultations, and admitted more than 2,500 severely malnourished children to its therapeutic feeding programme.

Since the violence erupted, MSF has helped treat over 10,700 war-wounded patients in Taiz.

Call to increase humanitarian response

In its new report, MSF reiterates its calls on all warring parties to ensure the protection of civilians and health workers and allow the wounded and sick access to healthcare.

MSF also calls on international aid organisations and donor governments to increase their humanitarian response in Yemen and ensure that aid is delivered to all those in need.

Harsh conditions felt across Yemen

The harsh conditions highlighted in these reports are not unique to Taiz.

MSF

The family of Fakhira carries over her body to a local cemetery, after her house was hit by shelling on July 24, 2015 in Taiz, Yemen.
The Family gave their consent.

Across the ten governorates in Yemen where MSF works, our teams witness the same issues: Yemenis are victims of both the direct and indirect consequences of this deadly and destructive war; access to quality, affordable healthcare is severely compromised; and after almost two years of war, humanitarian and medical aid is still failing to meet people’s most basic needs.